Tbh I’m concerned about Tanamaar because unless they somehow do a twist that Cylosis got renamed or just outright retcon Sylux’s homeworld as Tanamaar, it seems like there’s a massive missed opportunity to explore Sylux’s backstory by literally exploring the backstory of his home. Seems like all we’ll get on Sylux’s story is a log scan… Maybe they’ll reveal he’s going after the Lamorn artifact to revert time on his destroyed homeworld but idk.
Tbh with how much they’ve hyped up Sylux, him having such an unimpressive showing at the start is like. Is this going to be a trend? Yeah Samus beat him once before but you can say the same for Ridley and Dark Samus, that never stopped them from being consistent threats. Even after she’d beaten them more than once. Here it seems like Sylux being a bad shot is the catalyst for the entire time travel plot.
And with the confirmation that Mochtroids can fuse with and empower other living beings, it sounds as if Sylux has reimagined Project Dread from Corruption, whose purpose was to use Metroids as power sources for weapons. Here, it seems they’ll be used as power sources for living creatures, and I’ll bet you Sylux fuses with one, probably two, in a second boss fight.
Maybe he becomes Metroid Prime? And Beyond redefines Metroid Prime as referring to a particularly powerful mutant Metroid? The apex Metroid of its ecosystem? The fact that the Mochtroids are controlled by Sylux sounds like he did a hostile takeover akin to Dark Samus, where his Metroid imprinted on him, and the Mochtroids cloned from it listen to that Metroid, and by extension Sylux. Because otherwise Metroids can be just as much of a liability to their handlers as their designated targets.
Also this is a nitpick but I don’t think they should’ve spelled out in the opening narration that the Mochtroids are controlling Space Pirates, I think they should’ve saved the twist for the cutscene with Aberax and let it speak for itself as Prime often does. Obviously we know ahead of time thanks to trailers but from just the perspective of a first time player, it would’ve been more fun to find out this way.
HAVE YOU MET MY LORD AND SAVIOR, FEM SYLUX HEADCANON
Okay but actually like Samus is the only strong female character besides Gandrayda and she’s dead now so we could really use another one (who isn’t a clone of Samus). Also, of the two characters we’ve met who are leaders in the Federation, one of them Adam who’s weirdly sexist and is constantly calling out Samus on stupic shit and sassing her in a way he sees as banter but is actually annoying and insulting. That, coupled with the fact that the only ones in the Federation are humans and we’ve maybe seen one female trooper ever, it wouldn’t be farfetched that the Federation is, at best, really old-fashioned, and, at worst, crippled by casual xenophobia and sexism.
I feel like having a character who’s an alien attempting to join the Federation (possibly with some shapeshifting ability) but is eventually outted could be a compelling character. In my headcanon, Sylux is a trans girl from Cylosis who tried to sneak into the Federation so that she could serve and put up with years of verbal abuse from both her peers and her superiors before eventually being outted.
In her eyes, the Federation would be the most corrupt shithole that someone could ever be a part of , and for this reason she looks down on Samus, Rundas, and any other bounty hunters who are willing to work with them, as well as hating the Federation itself. Maybe she even takes missions specifically from people who are rejected by the Federation. Idk, gay robin hood style. But yeah, I’ll probably never see this version of the character given that they refer to him as he and his gender is listed as male everywhere BUT A BOY CAN DREAM! <3
The planet Cylosis, the world on which Sylux was first identified, has been in a state of war and revolution for years. A group of Cylosians decided to revolt against the Federation presence and break apart from the Federation, but neither side has made much progress in years due to the relative lack of effort the Federation put into defending it- they don’t see it as a major issue, and Cylosis isn’t a significant nor threatening planet.
Some think that Sylux may be linked to the rebellion, maybe a rebel fighter striking back against the Federation, but there is evidence from inside the rebel forces to suggest that Sylux has his own independent motives and is not linked to the war at all.
So apparently one of the guys who worked on the Metroid Prime series mentioned how he wants to make a game about time travel on a planet with mechanics similar to the Light/Dark worlds in Echoes and. We're all agreeing this is what Beyond will be about. We see portals in that jungle location. Its logo is based off of a black hole, which are known to distort time, and famously this was even a major plot point in the film Interstellar a while back, which had a black hole be used to travel back in time.
This could be a lot of fun narratively, because I think of how we learned Bryyo's history in the previous game through lore scans. So what if the time travel mechanic was used to show the development and collapse of this new world we're exploring, but in real time as Samus visits different periods in history? It could be a form of environmental storytelling, in addition to the more direct scans she uses.
It also makes me think about Sylux; I don't think we have any confirmation on what his home planet of Cylosis is like. I know some of us assume the icy world he appears in during the intro of Hunters is Cylosis, but it isn't necessarily. So what if this jungle planet is Cylosis? What if the time travel mechanic is used to explore Sylux's backstory, in a way to really flesh him out as a character? We fight different versions of Sylux across time. Maybe even two at once. We see how Cylosis could've fallen apart because of the Galactic Federation.
Maybe we even get to visit the future and that’s why the game is called Beyond, because we’re exploring beyond history. Samus could see a version of herself where she won or didn’t, same with Sylux who’d still hold a grudge. Maybe Sylux is using time shenanigans to change Cylosis’ future because maybe it isn’t doomed yet. Maybe he’s from the future, even, after accidentally flying the Delano 7 through a black hole!!! And his knowledge of the past allowed him to slip past Federation security, know what they have stored and where and when, etc. It’s why nobody’s heard of Sylux, he hasn’t happened yet. And what made him hate the Federation hasn’t happened yet either, which is why most are baffled regarding his motives.
On a final note, and this is getting into some mad, silly, conspiracy theory territory. But given the hype of Sylux's mysterious identity, and don't take this too seriously. What if Sylux is future Samus. What if it's Samus after experiencing Fusion and possibly more yet-to-happen events, who became deeply disillusioned with the Federation and even saw them as the true cause of the Space Pirates from a systemic sense. And as a result she became more sympathetic to the Space Pirates, opting not to blame the symptom but the root cause (That, or she's just using them and plans to betray the pirates as well).
At some point in the future, she got sent back to the past, landing in Cylosis but without her Chozo power suit. So she used her knowledge from working with the Federation to infiltrate a facility and find a substitute, replacing her power cannon with the Shock Coil, and the morphball with the Lockjaw.
She can't just tell or warn everyone about the truth, because she came from the future without any real physical evidence, plus this is stuff that has yet to happen; She'd just be dismissed as yet another conspiracy theorist, plus being open about the time travel stuff could be a whole can of worms. Sylux hates her past self for her mistakes and foolishness, because she’s got hella self-loathing; She’s trying to prevent the monster she helped create.
Sylux uses her knowledge of the past to infiltrate the Federation and hatch a Metroid when they have one; At this point she's already awakened her Metroid DNA, which we know has Queen potential, and that's how she can control them. The Mochtroids are an attempt to boost Metroid numbers while she oversees other methods.
Present-Day Samus defeats Sylux and learns the maddening truth, wondering what the Federation has done, or will do, to break that trust so completely. Beyond's story ends with Samus prepared, but also wary of who she might become if she doesn't get a handle on herself and become Sylux all over again. Knowing her future gives her insight to prevent it and create a better timeline where she isn't pushed to that desperation, so in a way maybe Sylux DOES succeed.
Plus, you could combine this with the full circle theory that Sylux will be revealed as a woman just as Samus was at the start, but take it a step further by having it be the same woman behind the armor all along!!!
I’m convinced the planet we see Sylux at the beginning of Hunters is his listed homeworld of Cylosis, because it’s probably the same one we see at the start of Beyond:
Rocky, barren cliffs…
Even a dust particle effect! Very subtle in the Beyond screenshot I took, but dust is sent when Samus’ gunship flies off. Similarly, Sylux sends dust flying when he rams into a Federation marine, and the fogginess of the Hunters setting translates to the clouds we see in Beyond.
Plus? Given it’s basically confirmed that Beyond will revolve around time travel as a mechanic, I bet you this rainforest is Cylosis before the Federation rendered it barren from colonialism. This may even be the same area Beyond begins in, unrecognizable because of the lack of Federation touch, all of the flora and fauna present again, etc.
Sylux is probably a native of Cylosis who personally experienced the Federation’s destruction of their home. Maybe we’ll see them and Samus interact, under Sylux’s original identity; And as we hop through time, Samus might do something pro-Federation, contributing to the destruction of Cylosis. At the very least, Sylux becomes Sylux, and finds out the friend they made would end up working for the Federation, or already did.
This factors into their intense hatred for Samus; They were a friend to her first. And Sylux feels used and betrayed by Samus now. They’re bitter at what Cylosis and Samus have become, and have since been attacking Federation bases on their planet to fight back. They may have even proclaimed Cylosis as their home to the Federation invaders, which is why Sylux’s homeworld is somehow identified but not their identity.
(On a lesser note, we’ll probably call the new breed of purple, insectoid Space Pirate the ‘Cylosis Pirates’.)
The general idea for my fanon Sylux’s life story leading up to the fateful battle on Cylosis is as follows:
They were a regular human child at one point, part of an Earthian colony on the edge of Federation space. Their parents were engineers and were already trying to teach “Sylux” a lot. They didn’t understand most politics, but did overhear their parents discussing concerns about Space Pirate raids, frustration with the Federation for not cracking down harder; Accusing the Federation of being afraid, appeasing the pirates and even other entities such as the Kriken Empire by allowing these “sacrifices.”
It eventually comes true; While traveling aboard a civilian cruiser, Sylux’s family and everyone aboard are attacked by Space Pirates, who are being directed by Kraid. Everyone is wiped out, and Sylux is placed aboard an escape pod as their parents cover their escape. Before the pod ejects, their parents place a bunch of documents and files into their hands, instructing Sylux to “keep them safe” before being cut off by incoming pirates who gun them down in front of a traumatized Sylux. The pod successfully flees as pirates claim the cruiser.
Sylux’s pod eventually crash-lands on the nearest planet, Cylosis. It’s swampy and inhabited by the Selukat; They’re essentially dog-sized Loch Ness monsters, with four-eyed dragon faces hearkening to the ones that Sylux recreates on Viewros. The Selukat don’t have opposable thumbs, just flippers, but some possess exoskeleton frames designed to interface with their bodies.
The Selukat medics help Sylux, whose nose was sliced wide open by the crash. They get the idea to do some modifications, implanting a pheromone translator into Sylux’s nose as they patch it up; Although the Selukat can vocalize via screeches, they prefer to communicate via pheromones. Sylux wakes up, wanting to go back home, but the Selukat village discusses what to do with Sylux.
They implore Sylux to stay, not eager to contact the Federation and be potentially implicated in a Space Pirate attack. Not only that, but they think this Earthian child can potentially be very helpful; Earthians grow bigger than the Selukat, and they have naturally have opposable thumbs. On top of that, they’ve granted this Earthian the ability to comprehend and communicate in pheromones, they have the setup for a translator who can converse between the Selukat and the usual species who rely on vocalization.
There’s no need to go back; We’re doing you a favor, if anything, the Selukat insisted. Earthians like you? You’re expected, and eventually pushed, into becoming soldiers for the military. You’ll fight for a Federation that doesn’t care and get blasted to pieces for it. Sylux wondered if the chance to strike back at the Space Pirates was so bad… Did the Selukat even mean this point?
Sylux was basically trapped on Cylosis in this little village, shoved into this role as this out-of-place Earthian. The Selukat can breathe on air and in water, but Sylux can’t so they’re barred from a lot of places and activies. The Selukat being smaller means their doorways and rooms are smaller, which further bars Sylux. They feel stuck and out of place, awkward, a gangly freakshow amidst these dragons.
Still, they adapt; They pick up some old manuals in Federation text that the Selukat have and learn to become a brilliant engineer. A lot of this was pushed onto them by necessity; There’s not much else they can do or provide. The Selukat are better hunters because they’re suited to the environment, amongst other roles. Sylux eventually learns to make sense of the pheromones their senses have been bombarded with, and figures out how to communicate in pheromones.
That doesn’t mean they don’t practice vocalizations; The Selukat are in deal with local traders who are species who speak in sounds. It can be difficult speaking with them, but Sylux is a translator who comes from Federation culture and seamlessly navigates between the local Selukat and these outsiders. The traders aren’t interested in taking Sylux off-world at the price they’re offering, and it seems their clients on Cylosis would be upset if they did so.
In the meantime, Sylux attempts to make sense of the files their parents gave them; The Selukat had confiscated and attempted to understand them, but it was a bunch of unintelligible letters and numbers. They'd guessed it was a code that required a cipher, but whatever it was, they had no clue, so they decided to let Sylux have it back in case they ever figured it out. The immediate guess was to use their name, but that didn't work out; Too obvious, of course.
Sylux also learns from the Selukat their history; They were once a low-tech society until Federation explorers happened upon their planet. One of the first things they did was mistake a local Selukat for wildlife, not able to converse with it, so they killed it. Still, the Selukat overlooked this outrage and were encouraged to join the Galactic Federation.
Cylosis quickly suffered for this; As it became entrenched in part of an intergalactic economy, it found its laborers outcompeted by so many other species who were bigger or better at other things. What specialties the Selukat could do could be done better by another race. Companies came in to use their resources. In the end, the Selukat had to lean in on their main specialty; Their pheromones. They became involved in work involving an enhanced sense of smell, such as perfume manufacturing. But this line of work exposed their noses to noxious fumes that damaged and dulled many Selukat over time, numbing both their ability to speak but also navigate their environments.
The Selukat eventually had enough; They regretted joining the Galactic Federation, as it all it led to was colonization, exploitation, and feeling awkward and out of place in a society whose infrastructure was hostile to their own. They could not vocalize as well as other races, with the Federation depending upon sound to talk, and they were tired of having to depend on expensive technology such as exoskeletons or translators installed into their bodies, with most of their assets depleted just to be near the level of the average Federation laborer. So they chose to secede.
The Federation did not accept this and employed one of its nearby homeworlds, a race of purple insects sorted into two castes, one of which was smaller and more populous, the other (the Aberax) of which was larger and designated as heavy labor. This insectoid race was naturally faster, stonger, and more durable than other Federation races; And they reproduced at rapid numbers. They were suited for warfare in a way not many other species were, and so they were contracted by the Federation to enforce its will.
The Federation’s soldiers employing numerous war crimes and atrocities, as well as experimental weaponry such as concentrated neutrinos. The Selukat fought back but were eventually forced into submission. When the people’s revolution overthrew the old Federation parliament, Cylosis took advantage of the chaos to secede, successfully this time; The Federation’s typical enforcer races had opted to abandon them in their time of need.
These very enforcers were banding together to become a military force capable of taking control of the Federation, as it turned out; They became the Space Pirates, and the very insectoid homeworld that colonized Cylosis on behalf of the Federation now had many members employed in the rising PMC that had slaughtered Sylux’s family.
As for Cylosis, it maintained its independence from this reformed Federation; To its credit, it seemed to let the Selukat mind their own business… But because the scars still remained, they relied upon local non-Federation traders for resources, as their society and infrastructure had been irreparably changed since they joined the Federation. Hence the need for a mechanic/translator in Sylux.
But the Selukat aren’t a monolith, and there’s a decent amount of locals who empathize with Sylux and object to their treatment. As Sylux grows sympathetic to Cylosis’ history, they make friends who tell them to ignore it, it’s no excuse because Sylux is innocent and another victim of the same insectoids who colonized them a while back. A lot of these friends were kids who grew up along Sylux, who put in effort to try and communicate with them on a human level via writing and body language.
Sylux’s skill as a mechanic grew as they became a local hero, one who always knows what to do with technology, or simply does it faster and better, on top of using their hands for other tasks. A local Selukat mechanic who had to rely on an exoskeleton frame got jealous, hostile to Sylux and threatened them, meagerly, not to disrupt their business.
Sylux by this point had grown, both physically and in spirit; They made it clear just what they could do to this smaller dragon, who might’ve had nasty fangs but little else to fight back with. But after successfully scaring off the local mechanic, Sylux reflected on the history they’d learned, the reality that this mechanic was losing business because of them, and later approached the mechanic offering an olive branch. Sylux asked to become their apprentice and employee, in exchange for access to the Selukat’s resources and tutelage.
By the end of the day, they didn’t want to cause trouble. And maybe, just maybe, they resonated with the story of the Selukat. Sylux could empathize deeply with feeling out of place in a society whose very structure was hostile to you, not even in a malicious but an objective way. Being pigeonholed into a role with calluses on their hands, it was a lot! Now obviously this was directly a result of what the Selukat, victims of such a scenario, placed Sylux into. They wouldn’t ignore that.
But they also understood that there were larger systemic issues at play here, and maybe they needed some solidarity to rise against that together. Work with one another. Sylux was still someone for whom the alienating Federation infrastructure was built for, so in a roundabout sense, Earthians contributed to the struggle of the Selukat that motivated them to do this to Sylux. Obviously individual harm was to be considered, but systems needed to be taken down as well.
Overall, Sylux kinda got it; The Federation did this to us. The Federation made you guys desperate to do what you could to survive in a larger society where you were outclassed, so you created me to keep up, just as you created these exoskeleton frames. The Federation sent its soldiers to brutalize you for wanting freedom from this mess, and I also lowkey want to leave Cylosis one day to be back in a society whose infrastructure fits me. And now the same Feds that brutalized the Selukat went on to slaughter Sylux’s family, placing them here; It all wraps around to this hellish system.
Sylux forms a resounding solidarity with the local Selukat. Eventually they become old enough, they train a couple people, and become beloved. This doesn’t stop either party from acknowledging that Sylux is always going to be ill-fitting for a place like this, and they yearn to be with their own kind, and other races similar. They admittedly should not have been here this long to begin with, but at least the Selukat bestowed what could be a gift to give Sylux an edge in the future, when they reintegrate with Federation society.
Well, that future is now; The village arranges with the traders to get Sylux off of Cylosis and some forms to return to the Federation. Sylux has some reservations, but is ultimately eager and thanks the Selukat; There’s some mixed feelings and it wasn’t all perfect. But in the end it’s kinda like “Stockholm Syndrome,” which was used to describe a situation in which the hostages wound up more sympathetic to the criminals, because of how the police mismanaged the situation and how the criminals were more compassionate towards them.
Sylux became a citizen of some interspecies Federation homeworld; Possibly the capital itself, Daiban. There, they made a name for themselves, quickly showing off their clever skill as a mechanic. On the side they got to pursue some jobs they actually wanted, such as tattooing. Others were clearly out of reach; As the Selukat had predicted, these were taken up by species simply better than Earthians at it.
But how could Sylux blame them? They were just trying to take what they could to survive in this cutthroat economic system. Just as the Selukat probably left a lot of other races frustrated for helping corner the job market on careers related to smell and pheromones. There was always individual fault, but the way the system pitted them against one another didn’t help.
Sylux interacted with the internet, found others who also shared in criticism of the Federation’s clumsiness. They even met some people in real life; An elderly activist who spent her entire life doing political lobbying. She did not believe in political violence; Non-violent protest and change was the way to go. Still, Sylux could not help but be disheartened by the way she spent so much of her life and accomplished very little.
What they saw and heard demonstrated a point; The Federation provided little in terms of equitable accommodations. Its politicians and corporations were either disinterested, or had it in their best interests to prevent these things, and Sylux could not muster the same sympathy for them as they did other races. Still, what solution was there? To all secede from one another, only to stick to those alike, as the Selukat had?
Sylux became more and more disillusioned with the way the Federation ran as they heard about the growing Space Pirate threat, their trauma flaring. Perhaps if the Federation hadn’t enabled this un-official caste system, the various races employed in warfare would not have formed the Space Pirates, Kraid would not have slaughtered their family… There was still some good to be had from it all, but that didn’t mean it should’ve happened.
Sylux was far less of an anomaly in the Federation than on Cylosis, but people could still tell they’d been raised a certain way; Their body language betrayed someone who always expected to look down at a world smaller than them. They sometimes forgot to verbalize, they would make vocalizations like the Selukat, though most weren’t familiar with the species.
They made for a great translator though; Amidst the various jobs they took on, some of them for fun, some of them just to pay rent, Sylux would help out immigrants of species who relied better on pheromones. Being a translator encouraged Sylux to be an effective communicator, know how to get ideas across simply and well. When companies implemented planned obsolescence, Sylux became a favorite as locals went to them to fix their devices and jury-rig modifications, getting around having to pay for expensive and unneccessary replacements. They hated the Space Pirates but were otherwise a proud pirate themselves, in a sense.
The peak of such activity came when a few clients came in with scavenged Federation gear, looted from some horrific Space Pirate raid, and asked Sylux to help them make it work. Computers and security systems, it was confidential stuff that should be reported… And Sylux worked with it, learned how to hack, and then sent the clients on their way.
Not every client was safe; Sylux had some bad run-ins, came across the occasional thief or criminal with a knife. Nobody had taught them to fight, yet it came very naturally to them as they could take down an armed robber with very little. Realistically you’re not supposed to be a hero in such situations, but Sylux had an impeccable, self-taught talent. There was also a rage, deep down; Sometimes glimpsed when they’d hit someone a little too hard. But they learned to rein it in.
Sylux joined in political activism alongside their elderly friend, as they both agreed on the Federation’s failure to accommodate a diversity of body types, its inevitable favoring of certain trends, etc. And then one day, she collapsed from having overexerted herself in the sun, and died in front of Sylux. Her death accomplished nothing and was waved off.
Sylux became embittered and disillusioned. The Federation was too scared to address the Space Pirate atrocities it had enabled; In their eyes, the new parliament was merely the inheritors of the old one’s sins. Were they even necessarily wrong in that sense? More Space Pirate atrocities. Other small, yet gradual injustices in its economic systems. War hawks within the parliament who were allowed to have a voice, war hawks who espoused the same open beliefs that colonized Cylosis.
Sylux reached a point where they would sometimes “joke” about assassination. Some of their peers were appalled. Some. But in the end they had to acknowledge a point the Space Pirates had embraced; You can only get things done by making them happen, because ideas don’t exist without people to enforce them.
Sylux still loathed the Space Pirates, but they began to see that there was little distinction between them and the Federation; It was just the same rot, cut in half and feuding with itself. They still supported the Federation’s victory over the pirates, but found themselves questioning the Federation’s growing militarization. But at the same time, is this not necessary? Sylux found themselves conflicted. The Federation had never had a military until recently, the Selukat had warned them. It was comprised primarily of Earthians; This could’ve been Sylux’s fate, had it not been for the Selukat.
Even if the Space Pirates were taken out, what would happen next? Would the Federation demilitarize, or would its parliament be content to have demonstrated what happens to those who dissent? It was Federation forces that colonized Cylosis. Sylux participated in protests skeptical of the Federation war hawks, as well as cries to reform the economy. Many officials dismissed these as distractions; Now more than ever, the Federation needed to be strong to combat the pirates!
But Sylux knew that the military needed to be strong; There was no reason officials back home couldn’t be scrutinized, because it’s not as if their work did much to affect the war effort. It was all a sham. As the election narrowed down between war hawk Vogl and the well-meaning Kiitin, Sylux had to wonder about either option. At least Kiitin had the right ideas, but he seemed ineffectual.
The Metroid Crisis finally began. Sylux’s planet was unaffected, but they blanched, thinking of the Selukat; Cylosis was outside of Federation space, and likely to be abandoned by the Federation to the Space Pirates, or re-colonized under the pretense of “protecting” them. Probably both; Why not let the Selukat be wiped out once more, and then show up to enslave the survivors who weren’t strong enough to be sent onto that battlefield?
They cared about some of the friends they’d made on this planet, but the Selukat… They taught Sylux a lot, opened their eyes. They may have been a mixed bag, done shitty things to them. But in the end they cared, they understood, they empathized. They were their family.
Sylux made up their mind and traveled off-planet, flying back to Cylosis. They reunited with their old friends; The other kids grown up like them, their mechanic mentor. The Selukat were surprised and suggested Sylux keep themselves safe; The Selukat would have to remain on Cylosis, it was their home, their bodies were meant for it, unlike Sylux. Sylux didn’t care, and anyhow they saw a chance to get revenge on the Space Pirates. Maybe they would wind up dying on some battlefield against them as the Selukat had warned all those years ago, but it would be on their terms, not for some filthy Federation.
As everyone had predicted, the Space Pirates gunned for Cylosis, with the army stationed there being the same insectoids who had colonized the planet in the past. Clearly, they were convinced they could do it all over again, with better knowledge and now these monstrous Ultimate Warriors on their side.
It was a brutal conflict as Sylux became a local legend, fighting in jury-rigged custom armor and weapons. The village they’d grown up in became one of many local armies as Sylux helped the war effort by arming the Selukat, upgrading their exoskeleton frames and working out deals with local traders to supply the planet; They couldn’t rely on the Federation’s support, and the Selukat didn’t want to. Some Federation ambassadors didn’t understand who this Sylux was, why they were here, what they’d done to be nominated as an ambassador for the planet.
They just thought Sylux was some young and dumb kid. They were. But it was not their decision, as the Federation misunderstood. They were just the messenger.
Sylux got to vent some much-needed rage on the Space Pirates, and the Selukat took advantage of their ability to converse in silent pheromones the pirates couldn’t comprehend. But the Metroids were terrifying; Sylux ordered many retreats just at the sight of one. As knowledge of their weakness to ice became apparent, Sylux worked to cobble together weapons that could freeze a Metroid and lobby it with concussive force immediately afterwards. They had moderate success, as Sylux became famed as a Metroid slayer amongst the Selukat.
A victory seemed uncertain but the Selukat were committed to seeing this through no matter what. In a stroke of fate, the tides of war turned when the Space Pirates’ own Metroids suddenly went berserk, turning on their masters as well as the local Selukat. The Selukat watched as the pirates panicked, slow and large Aberax commanders being the first prey, which left the remaining forces disoriented and panicked.
The Selukat stayed on the sidelines, letting the Metroids do a lot of the work. The Space Pirates successfully contained and/or destroyed the Metroids, as word got around that the biomechanical AI that had controlled the creatures, Mother Brain, had been destroyed by a single-handed raid on the Space Pirate capital by a bounty hunter known as Samus Aran.
Sylux didn’t know who this Samus Aran was, but they decided they liked and respected her a lot, and appreciated the assist. Maybe if they met, they’d let the gratitude be known… Until then, there was a war to finish as the Selukat launched a successful counterattack against the Space Pirate forces, whose proud general refused to back down. It all came down to a final battle, an attempt to capture an artillery cannon… And that’s where it all went wrong.
By this point, Sylux had lost it all; They lost all of the friends they’d grown up with, basically the entire village. All thanks to the Federation and Samus Aran. They said they didn’t get the warning, that they didn’t hear it… But who could trust them?
Sylux looked up to Samus, for a brief time. She was not a soldier, but a mercenary. Was she some hapless victim dragged into an atrocity, was she just someone who didn’t know any better? They weren’t sure. But by now, Sylux had had enough; They’d already seen the slow violence the Federation inflicted on its worlds. Some of that violence was immediate, because of the Space Pirates.
But this horrific battle? It may have technically won Cylosis the war, but at an unnecessary cost as it angrily rebuked the Federation’s intervention. Admiral Dane may have withdrawn his forces, for now… But this was the last straw. So much handwringing about inflicting unprovoked violence, but the Federation had already done it. It had been doing it the whole time. What of that activist friend, imagine her life not being wasted because what she spent all her years making happen could’ve been done in an instant with a few deaths to make the stakes clear to sluggish politicans?!
What of the Federation’s colonization; It wasn’t a coalition, it was a crime ring that press-ganged planets into joining. The Selukat were colonized, Sylux didn’t mean to be a segregationist but it really would’ve been better if none of this happened. If they didn’t come about as a result of this, so what? No pain, no gain. Maybe they didn’t deserve to exist, maybe it was also their bad calls that led to their village being wiped out.
They’d always held off on principles of morality, but also practicality; The Federation was needed to quell the Space Pirates. But now it seemed the Metroids were handling that just fine for everyone, so what need was there to put up with the Federation and its military’s BS? If it won, would it not be a greater threat, as it was the one that had armed and enabled the Space Pirates to begin with?
And anyhow, the murder of some local senators and politicians who didn’t even coordinate the war effort wasn’t going to affect the defeat of the Space Pirates. Maybe some disrupted supply lines could be an issue, but again: Those Space Pirates shot themselves in the foot by putting all their eggs into a basket whose only reason to not eat their faces was a singular, mortal, load-bearing point.
Sylux didn’t even care about revenge against Kraid; Rumor had it that he’d been assassinated by Samus as well. Even the Space Pirates were pitiable in the larger sense of leaning into that which the Federation pigeonholed them into. It all came down to the Federation, so that’s where it would go.
Sylux sent their farewells to the village that’d raised them. And then they returned to their home in Federation space, gathering all of the resources they needed to start a personal crusade. As Sylux deliberated where to begin, their mind suddenly wandered back to the topic of their parents' coded files. The cipher needed a word to unlock...
Sylux put in the word: Cylosis. Suddenly, it all came together as the cipher spelled itself out. It was extensive documentation of an off-the-books Federation research facility, designed for the development of unusual technology. This seemed innocuous enough, but what caught Sylux's eye were discussions of a prototype known as the Shock Coil: A weapon utilizing neutrinos, which was banned from warfare after atrocities committed by the Federation on Cylosis.
Was it destiny? Or just the simple result of one's actions? Sylux wondered what could this all mean... Were their parents whistleblowers involved in the Shock Coil project? Was the trip that happened to "pass by" Cylosis part of a scheme to collaborate with the local Selukat, who would obviously be sympathetic, in posting these files for the public to hold the Federation accountable? In a way that the Selukat could claim, without having to implicate a family and the child they were raising?
Or was it the Space Pirates? Were Sylux's parents loyalists who were intercepted by pirates who knew of their connection to the Federation's secrets? At this point, the only person who could confirm anything in that direction would be Kraid...
But in the end it didn't really matter, did it? Maybe their parents were secretly heroes struck down before they had a chance to redeem themselves. Or they were filthy Federation loyalists all along. All Sylux could say for certain was that this situation wouldn't have happened anyway if the Federation hadn't been conducting such illegal research.
Sylux thought about what to do with this information: The immediate option was to post it online, but truth be told they felt it wouldn't do much. The public and news outlets would wring their hands, protest, and then nothing would get done as some politicians would defend the Federation, stating now more than ever the military needed their support to seize the turn of momentum in the Metroid Crisis to defeat the Space Pirates, yadda-yadda. The newly-elected Kiitin would make a speech condemning the project, and then what?
This could still happen. But in the meantime, well... Sylux needed an edge. And people who build weapons of atrocity deserve to be punished for them; The Federation had brutalized Cylosis both with the neutrinos and then the artillery cannon's explosion. May as well make it even.
Sylux disguised themselves in the best armor they could put together and used the detailed knowledge of the facility's layout, its security, everything encoded to sneak inside. They laid claim to the Shock Coil and slaughtered its researchers with it, and then destroyed as much data as they could.
Along the way, they discovered other projects the Federation had begun in the years between their parents' demise and this attack: The Circuit Suit, a prototype armor meant to emulate the Chozo's Morph Ball, and an experimental stealth fighter known as the Delano 7. Sylux claimed both of these as well, now fully-armed for their crusade. As the Federation attempted to cover up the incident, Sylux exposed it by finally posting their parents' files for everyone to see; May as well open up some people's eyes, maybe they too might get the same ideas as them...
Masked in the Circuit Suit, Sylux became a mysterious vigilante, even as they set to work on a manifesto and a proper solution to all of these problems they’d observed and experienced within the Federation. Their identity as the anti-Federation bounty hunter known as “Sylux” was unknown, but there was speculation on ties to Cylosis, as Sylux had integrated sound clips of their Selukat friends’ screeches as a war cry. A way to haunt those Federation bastards. Would it matter much if the Federation connected Sylux to their civilian identity, anyway?
The Selukat of Cylosis offered no comment nor aid in discerning this terrorist's identity. They were under no obligation to, for they were not of the Federation. It became agreed that the terrorist known as Sylux was from Cylosis, but their species remained an anomaly. The armor Sylux had worn fighting alongside the Selukat had obscured their human identity and silhouette, the helmet modeled after a Selukat’s face.
They came up with the name Sylux, as translation of Selukat literature and culture was always a passion for them. It meant adjacent to Cylosis, but not quite of it; Sylux was an outsider, and in their eyes they’ve ended as one. The Selukat harbored and nurtured them well, but in the end they got that same community killed. Close, but not enough to embrace or truly belong anywhere.
As for Samus Aran… As Sylux continued their anti-Federation crusade, they had to wonder what her whole deal was. They inevitably harbored much rage and resentment towards her, but they at least wanted to hear her out. But asking for an explanation meant nothing when people can lie. Best to trace Samus, watch from afar and see how she shows herself when others aren’t looking… When Gorea successfully sent out its psychic signal, Sylux was tracing Samus when they’d intercepted it, and decided the Federation could not have access to the Ultimate Power.
Sylux, on the other hand… They’d already accepted the arrogance of deciding they know better than billions, may as well see that all the way through by seizing the Ultimate Power in the Alimbic Cluster! Sylux came across Samus, knowing damn well she was on behalf of the Federation; They could not trust her, so they fought for the first time, and Sylux fared quite well, and admittedly let loose perhaps a bit too much rage.
They weren’t sure if Samus saving them from Gorea’s scam was intended or just a fluke; But between the genocide of the Ing of Aether, and the genocide of the Metroids of SR388, Sylux began to suspect more and more that Samus really was just some mindless attack dog for the Federation. At best, she was well-meaning, but too stubborn and naïve to ever change her ways. She too had to die, so Sylux waited for the perfect moment to strike once the Space Pirate threat had been eradicated for good; Because at that point, Samus had outlived her usefulness.
An encounter on Tanamaar would be the way to go; The fact that it was in the chaos of a raid by Space Pirate remnants from the Battle of Cylosis made it too perfect for Sylux to ignore. Let Samus wear herself out against that arrogant Aberax and take her out once and for all. Hopefully, some civilization divorced from the Federation entirely hasn’t left some volatile artifact here…
I keep having fun with different Sylux scenarios in my head and now I’m thinking of another backstory that merges both my fanon motivations for Sylux (the disdain for a government that enabled a non-official caste system) and Samus blowing up a weapon after Sylux ignored the Federation’s orders:
Cylosis is a planet that doesn’t like the Federation for again, the same reasons I elaborated with my Sylux fanon. When it tried to secede, the Federation (during its Old Army era) deployed one of its client races (the Tanamaar Pirates) to suppress and control them. Sometime later, a people’s rebellion overthrew the Old Army, and Cylosis took advantage of the chaos to secede. The new government that was being hastily jury-rigged together took a solid look at Cylosis and decided, Let’s just let them have this.
In the meantime, some of the Federation’s client races also take the opportunity to invest in the Space Pirate PMC. Castor Dane is born but loses his family at a young age to the Space Pirates. Sometime after that, the human who’d go on to be called Sylux is born and winds up under the care of the people of Cylosis. I dunno how or why, probably another Space Pirate massacre. They were the galaxy’s #1 orphan manufacturer.
The Space Pirates launch the Metroid Crisis and deploy the Tanamaar Pirates to Cylosis, reasoning that they’ve done it before so they can do it again. Samus flips things around with the Zero Mission and helps the Federation in their counterattack. The people of Cylosis fight back and a grown-up Sylux does prodigal work as leader of a squad, helping wipe out the local Metroids.
Cue the battle: The people of Cylosis fighting in the trenches against Space Pirates who are surrounding an artillery canon. It’s not a super-weapon but it fends off spacecraft so it’s still powerful and volatile. The people of Cylosis are losing, but they have an ace up their sleeve: Sylux’s squad, which has snuck past enemy lines is right next to the cannon.
Sylux receives a message from Admiral Dane, who notes that Cylosis is losing and they need Federation backup. Sylux tells him to fuck off, they’re not gonna give the Federation the opportunity to take control under the guise of “saving” Cylosis; Besides, pirates at Cylosis is Cylosis’ business, not the Federation’s. Dane retorts that the Space Pirates just launched a devastating attack on the Federation, their continued operation is absolutely their business! Dane notes he has Samus Aran on standby.
Space Pirates spot the group and open fire, so Sylux hangs up to focus. Cut to Dane’s POV, frustrated; He thinks Sylux just hung up out of pride. He flashes back to the Space Pirates massacring his family and holds both a rage against this pirate cell and a refusal to let the incident repeat. Down below, a squad member asks if they should let in Samus and Sylux says screw that, they’ll proceed as planned. They respect Samus for taking out Ridley and averting the Metroid Crisis, but the dear admiral clearly doesn’t want Cylosis to have a weapon that could threaten his ships. The squad gets closer to the cannon but they’re cut off by the Aberax commander. Sylux stays behind to deal with it as they order their squad to go on ahead, infiltrating the cannon.
Sylux’s communicator gets damaged but they manage to single-handedly slay an Aberax with average armor and weaponry. Sylux’s friends seize the cannon from within. The Space Pirates outside haven’t noticed and continue to press onward, so the only way to stop is to obliterate them with their own cannon. Sylux’s squad sees it’s finished recharging and prepare a shot. In space, Dane sees this and panics, believing it’s about to fire on the people of Cylosis. He orders Samus to go ahead, not bothering to clarify he’s technically going without permission because every split-second counts.
Samus flies in, and begins charging a torpedo. From outside, Sylux sees this and panics, using the communicator to warn Dane, but they don’t realize it’s broken and only see Samus continue her course. They try to warn their squad but it’s too late. Samus fires a torpedo right into the charging cannon as Sylux runs forward to stop it (What could they have possibly done?) and the cannon detonates. Sylux is shielded by the Aberax’s corpse of all things, and when it’s over the body has been disintegrated, their dropped communicator with it. Sylux barely comes to, just for Samus to drop in right in front of them; She saw Sylux. Samus runs towards the remaining panicking pirates as the Federation swoops in, and Sylux glances around at the scene in disbelief.
The Space Pirates surrender, so Samus has time to check up on this unusual human of Cylosis. She offers a hand and Sylux briefly contemplates it in disbelief before slapping it aside. They stare at their own hands, covered in Aberax blood as they tremble. When Dane is confronted about ignoring Sylux’s warning, he claims he received no warning. Sylux comes to the conclusion he’s lying; Dane’s insulted ego didn’t want Cylosis to have an anti-spacecraft weapon to defend against the Federation, so he took his chance to destroy it with plausible deniability. Sylux can’t check their communicator to confirm it was broken because it got disintegrated; And so what became blame becomes a blood debt that needs to be repaid.
I’m having fun with this take just for the Shakespearean tragedy of it all; Three parties, each of them operating under limited information and pressing circumstances, who genuinely mean well and don’t know any better. The Space Pirates are of course the fourth party who are 100% the villains of it all, which is of course yet another reason why Sylux doesn’t side with them (in this version of Beyond, they’re a third party who crashes in to kill Samus after she’s worn out handling the Aberax).
Dane wants revenge against the Space Pirates, he doesn’t want the people of Cylosis to suffer like that. He sees a Space Pirate weapon about to fire, he doesn’t know Sylux’s squad already has it handled. Samus is following Dane’s orders and assumes the tension between the Federation and Cylosis has been resolved, plus the cannon IS charging up. Sylux has plenty of reason not to trust the Federation, it may have supposedly changed but when you have madmen like Vogl and his supporters still operating in the open, how can you say for sure? Cylosis really did have it handled, they told Dane as such, and were ignored.
When the Tanamaar Pirates conquered Cylosis on behalf of the Federation, it’s laughable to Cylosis that there’s any meaningful distinction now; It’s like asking a Vietnamese farmer who lost their entire village to U.S. war crimes to trust the White House because one of the war’s generals led a failed coup, salty over not getting to finish what was started.
You can argue Sylux should’ve trusted Dane’s help, or at least believed his excuse afterwards, but that seems unreasonable with this context. You can likewise argue that Dane should’ve heeded Cylosis’ sovereignty and trusted in a commander who is actually on the field and knows what the situation and Cylosis’ strategy is; He let his emotions get the best of him. But when people are about to die, surely going against their demands just this once is fine, right? You see a weapon about to fire, you’ll panic.
Samus, well. She’s honestly innocent because how could she have known, was she just meant to assume that Dane was omitting a crucial detail? Regardless, it seems such a cruel mockery to Sylux to see the Federation and Samus, whom they initially respected, swoop in to save the day like they didn’t just murder their friends.
It maintains the (undercooked) parallel between canon Sylux’s relationship with his squad and Samus’ with her own. Sylux feels guilt, but in the end of course they decide it was the Federation’s fault. They already had a political hatred for the Federation, but now it’s been pushed to actual violence. And again, those politics shed an unfortunate truth regarding how the Federation operates.
It also plays into me killing off Dane via Sylux in the buildup to the Beyond arc; I chose Dane because he’s a Federation commander we actually care about and aren’t rooting to have killed off, so it raises narrative stakes because otherwise if it was Other M’s colonel, all that tells us is that bad guys get defeated, so who cares? But with a friendly Fed, that hurts, and it’s Dane because he’s always been beloved by the fandom (Sorry Alex).
Perhaps Sylux’s assassination was justice. Who can say? Sylux doubles down on their ideology as they wage war against the Federation; It’s ironic they push it when they themselves were raised by a species that doesn’t match humanity’s body type and capabilities. To Sylux, just because some good can come from a tragedy doesn’t mean the tragedy should’ve happened. And I dunno maybe they still feel guilty about getting their squad killed (It’s not actually their fault) and fantasize about a world in which they never showed up on Cylosis. They may have had their criticism of the Federation, but perhaps their proposed solution did not come to them until after the incident.
They were tracking Samus shortly before Gorea sent out its psychic message; To kill her? To see if she’s truly just innocent and misunderstood? Sylux isn’t sure but they’d already begun killing Federation members. And when they intercepted both Gorea’s message and the Federation’s order for Samus to investigate it, they weren’t about to let the Federation have that power to kill more people with. And anyhow they figure they need it more, so they fight Samus. Did she save them from Gorea intentionally, or by coincidence? They know damn well she wouldn’t have saved Weavel.
Sylux hears about how the Ing were wiped out by Samus. This sours their opinion of her immensely. Then they learn how she wiped out the Metroids; Sylux had no issue killing an invasive species, but in its own home? And keeping a survivor to hand over to the Federation!? That convinces Sylux that Samus really is just a Federation dog, there was no secret difference between her and them, not anymore.
It’s a dark poetry when the Tanamaar Pirates attack the Federation outpost, desperate to steal a mysterious artifact that could revive the group (Lamorn tech and Green Energy could’ve been a boon for them). Maybe that pushes Sylux into deciding it’s time; The Space Pirates have already been dismantled, so there’s no concern about destroying the Federation and enabling their rise. The Kriken are there, but the individual worlds of a disbanded Federation could easily pool their armies together for one war, and then go right back.
Samus takes a beating agains the Aberax and maybe even Weavel, and Sylux swoops in to finish her off. I want Samus to be genuinely screwed here, but maybe it’s Samus that accidentally shoots the artifact, inadvertently saving her own life but getting a lot of Federation soldiers killed in the long run because the Grievers and other threats leave only five survivors. Not her fault if Sylux perhaps knocked Samus’ arm cannon in a certain direction as it fired, but I guess they now relate to one another a lot, huh?
This is a fun idea to play with, but I might retain Sylux as just a mystery on an individual level, with their ideology all the answer you really need. Sometimes the simplest solution is the best but who knows? I can more easily imagine Samus hesitating and reaching out to Sylux if she realized what she’d done that day, VS if Sylux operated just from their ideology alone. Imagine Samus having the opportunity to land a final shot and put down Sylux for good as their armor short-circuits, only to hesitate… And then Sylux falls and it’s too late.
Sylux survives because of Samus’ hesitation and kills her friends. No good deed goes unpunished, right? When they find a way back to the main galaxy after Fusion (I guess they burn out their wormhole powers to make the jump) it’s gonna be reaaallllll awkward as Sylux decides to let bygones be bygones, satisfied with revenge and the fact that Samus is technically on their side now. Plus the issue of a Federation project both agree needs to be destroyed.
“Ok ok I KNOW I speculated it to be Cylosis but it’s actually Viewros but if you think about it! They’ll probably do a twist where Samus thinks she went from Cylosis at the start of the game to this new planet Viewros, and then they reveal Viewros is just what Cylosis used to be called!”
